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Ford has had a 1.0-liter three-cylinder EcoBoost engine on sale in Europe and other markets for some time now and has received no shortage of praise for the tiny engine’s impressive fuel economy and surprising performance. General Motors and Opel are firing back at the lauded 1.0-liter EcoBoost with their own milk carton-sized three-banger in the upcoming Corsa E and AutoEvolution has decided to stack the two motors against each other.

Opel announced their 1.0-liter Ecotec three-cylinder when it pulled the veil from its Adam Rocks concept earlier this year, a more rugged version of the stylish Adam city car. The engine will find its way into more than one new Opel, including the new Corsa, and is available in either 88 or 113 horsepower versions. By comparison, Ford’s EcoBoost three puts out 98 horsepower or 123 horsepower.

Both Opel and Ford’s engines produce identical levels of torque (125 lb-ft) however the Ecotec produces the majority of its power from 3,700 RPM, while the EcoBoost waits until 6,000 rpm to really get chugging. In the Fiesta, the EcoBoost three-cylinder will allow the car to hit 180 km/h, the same max speed as the three-cylinder Corsa E.

That’s enough about performance, though. Both of these motors were built with fuel economy in mind, so who’s the real winner here? The Fiesta returns about 54 mpg on the US cycle, while the Corsa E will get about 51 mpg. AE points out you will never reach these figures in the real world and they’re right, so the differences in fuel economy here are negligible. As a side note, the Fiesta emits less C02, which puts it in a cheaper tax bracket in the United Kingdom, a major market for both of these vehicles.

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6 Comments

GM should really improve this engine for use in The US. Variable Valve Timing, Intake Variable Valve Lift, and Spark Ignited Direct Injection should all be used as well as Stop/Start and Active Grille Shutters. It should make no less than 120HP and 130LB-FT. An eAssist version with Regenerative Braking should also be used which should put out around 130HP and 140LB-FT. The Voltec system is also coming. This engine in the Sonic should get as much as 35 City and 55 Highway.

opc wrote:
“who win(s)? (who) was the winner of the arguments of whats better?”

My takeaway after reading the article is that Ford has the proven edge at this point in time, but that the GM 1.0L Ecotec motor could close the gap and perhaps distinguish itself with a bit more development, especially if used in a vehicle as part of an integrated system similar to Mazda’s ‘Skyactive’ model.

On the spec sheet, Ford’s 1.0 turbo wins. But I heard that GM’s 1.0 turbo is 25% quieter and smoother than the Ford’s unit (part of the reason could be that Ford does not use balance shaft in its 1L engine). Fuel economy depends on a lot of factors like the weight of the car, dynamics of the car etc. In these aspects Ford has a clear edge over GM. I hope GM works on the dynamics a lot more than now. Also GM needs to work on this engine to extract few more horses. Ford’s engine pumps out 138bhp on special edition Fiesta. So better GM extract another 30 horses to 143. Good luck GM.